Systems, Methods, and Apparatuses for Resource Management

There are many different types of space-limited, or otherwise-limited, resources or resource areas that are used regularly by many people. Examples include parking areas, shared work areas, picnic areas, parks, various event venues, library resources, compute resources, etc.

The present disclosure relates to methods, apparatus, systems, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for indicating availability of and managing a geofenced resource area.

Driving around looking for available parking, having to park far away from a desired destination, or arriving at a work area, picnic area, event venue, etc. and then finding it full, for example, can waste valuable time, increase congestion and cause frustration.

Planning time to get from one place to another can not only include travel time, but also an estimate of how long it may take to find a particular resource or where to go for that resource closest to the desired destination. For example, if a college student is trying to determine when to leave for a class, they may need to consider typical travel time and the time it may take to find parking on campus, which may vary based on the time of day, day of the week, the month of the year, if the day is a holiday, etc. If available parking is far from the class, they may also need to take into account additional time to travel from their parking space to the classroom.

Using the example of a parking area on a college campus for purposes of illustration, to make it to class on time, a college student not only needs to estimate their travel time, but they also need to add in time to park and time to travel from their parking space to the classroom. These factors may vary, sometimes widely, by both day and time of day, making them hard to reliably predict. Trying to park as close as possible to a classroom, driving around to multiple parking lots and finding parking that matches the student's particular permit is a regular part of many students' daily life. The unpredictability associated with finding a place to park can be time-consuming and create unnecessary additional stress. This experience also applies to other contexts such as finding parking in other areas (e.g., malls, urban areas), or accessing other types of resource areas with limited availability.

Currently, for some parking areas, open spots are manually counted to provide users with some indication of parking availability. This approach requires an attendant to be physically present in the parking area, is time consuming and subject to error.

Alternatively, cameras, sensors and/or entry gates may be used to track parking availability. A display at the entry to the parking area may then indicate how many spaces are available. Lights installed in the ceiling of each level of the parking area may indicate whether a particular space is available. These approaches require hardware infrastructure, such as gates, sensors, cameras, and/or indicator lights, to be installed at the parking area and power to be supplied for the system to function, making them costly and resource intensive. Further, in some cases the occupancy information may only be available once a prospective parker is on site, making the information less helpful, especially if the parking lot is full.

Crowd-sourcing to report parking availability is another alternative, but it can be unreliable due to its dependence on the accuracy and availability of user reports.

Where third parties are contracted for any of the above approaches, additional costs may apply.

Other resource areas with limited resource availability, such as shared workspaces, recreation areas, etc. can present similar challenges. A more cost-effective, reliable and dynamic approach to indicating the availability of a resource in a resource area is needed.

According to some examples, a metric associated with resource availability for a geofenced resource area is stored. The stored metric is then updated in response to a geofence event associated with the geofenced resource area. The geofence event may, for example, indicate one or more of a resource-consuming entity entering or a resource-consuming entity exiting a geofence associated with the geofenced resource area, an elevation for the device triggering the geofence event (the elevation may allow for determining a resource for that elevation such as resource availability on a particular floor of a parking structure, etc.), information about the user and/or device triggering the geofence event, etc. A geofence event may also be associated with a “dwell” time or intended dwell time of the resource-consuming entity (i.e., an amount of time the resource-consuming entity is occupying the resource or intends to occupy the resource). An indication of resource availability for the geofenced resource area, based at least in part on the metric, is provided in response to a request for resource availability information associated with the geofenced resource area. Examples of metrics may include, but are not limited to one or more of: occupancy (e.g., of a lot and/or all lots), lot visits, adequacy, traffic flow over time (e.g., is there sufficient supply), parking ratios (e.g., supply versus deficit), dwell time (e.g., turnover), payment information, weather information, permit types, the route traveled, speed of the route traveled, origin information, destination information, the number of visits per day (e.g., for a user, all users, a proper subset of users such as disabled, etc.), vacancy, entry and exit locations, etc. Metrics may vary depending at least in part on the particular geofenced resource area or type of geofenced resource area. In some examples, at least some of the metrics are to be made available to resource owners.

For some examples, the resource availability information may be provided to a device or user through an application user interface, which may be a graphical user interface (GUI), of a mobile or web-based application. The resource availability information may be provided in response to a request for availability information, for example. The geofenced resource area may also be administered and managed through the same or a separate user interface.

A geofenced resource area may include any resource area for which a geofence may be implemented and that has limited resources available for use or occupancy. The geofenced resource area includes the area within and including the geofence perimeter. Examples include, but are not limited to, parking areas, recreation areas, event venues, shared workspaces, etc. The associated resources for these areas are parking spaces, charging stations, etc. (for the parking area example) or other types of spaces or resources such as picnic tables, pay stations, etc. depending on the type of resource area. Resource-consuming entities include, for the parking lot example, cars or other vehicles that may occupy the parking spaces. For other examples, resource-consuming entities may include people, families, or other entities that use or occupy the resources.

Using this approach, resource availability information (such as, for example, parking space availability), may be dynamically updated to provide resource-consumers with current information at any given time and from any location (assuming they have connectivity to receive data), while avoiding the high expenses of installing hardware infrastructure or the inherent unreliability of user reporting.

1 FIG. 100 100 illustrates an example of a geofenced resource area—in this case, a parking area or lot—for which availability may be indicated and managed. In the description herein, the terms “parking area” and “parking lot” are used interchangeably to refer to any area or structure where a vehicle (e.g., a car, truck, motorhome, motorcycle, bicycle, scooter, etc.) can park or otherwise occupy a space designated for the vehicle type. While the parking lotof this example is shown as being rectangular and including a certain number of spaces, other parking lot configurations, including multi-level structures, bike racks, etc. may be used in other examples.

100 102 100 100 102 102 102 102 102 The parking lotincludes multiple resources in the form of parking spaces, some of which are available and some of which are occupied as shown. A geofenceis associated with the parking lotand has a virtual perimeter that encompasses and/or intersects with location coordinates associated with each of the real-world parking spaces of the of the parking lotfor which availability information is to be provided. The geofencemay be implemented using global positioning system (GPS) or other geolocation/mapping technology to identify and define the geofenceand store the associated information as a geofence. The geofenceperimeter may be implemented as a radius around a given point or according to three or more specific geolocation points that define its boundary. For some examples, a geolocation service such as geolocation services provided by Radar Labs, Inc., Google, Apple or others may be used to implement the geofence. Alternatively, a mobile device with location services or a mapping component or other component or service with location capabilities may be used. Once implemented, the geofencecomprises geolocation information that defines its perimeter and the area it encompasses.

1 FIG. 1 FIG. 1 FIG. 104 104 106 106 100 With continuing reference to, an indication of parking space availability at the point in time shown inmay include, for example, a qualitative indicator such as color coding, a phrase indicating relative occupancy level, or a percentage of spaces occupied. Other indicators may include the number of available parking spaces, the types of parking spaces available or any other indicator or combination of indicators. In the example of, the types of parking spaces include handicapped spaces such as spacesA andB, another type of space, and standard spaces. Other parking space types, such as for the space, or other types of spaces for other examples may include, without limitation, electric vehicle spaces with charging stations, compact spaces, motorcycle spaces, short-term spaces, spaces designated for certain types of users, bike rack spaces, pay stations, etc. The parking space type may also or alternatively indicate a type of permit or other credential required to park either in the lotor in a particular space.

100 102 102 102 100 As vehicles enter and park or exit after parking, parking space availability for the parking lotchanges. To keep the indication of parking space availability information current, if a vehicle enters or exits the geofenceas determined by at least the vehicle's location (in some examples, a speed associated with the vehicle is also used in the determination of an entry and/or exit), or for some examples, if a vehicle stays within the geofenceor intends to stay within the geofencefor a period of time (referred to herein as its dwell time), a geofence event is triggered and a metric, such as the number of available parking spaces for the parking lot, is updated accordingly. The terminology entering, exiting or dwelling within a geofence is used herein to refer to entering, exiting or dwelling within a physical area with geolocation coordinates corresponding to the associated geofence.

102 100 100 100 100 100 For some examples, to trigger a geofence event when entering or exiting the geofence, each vehicle that uses the parking lot, or a person with or within the vehicle, uses a parking user application and associated location or mapping services. The vehicle or person is associated with a user account through the parking user application, which is downloaded to the vehicle or to a mobile device that travels with the vehicle. For examples where the parking lotrequires a permit, payment or other credential, a prospective user of the parking lot may be required to download the parking user application to purchase or otherwise qualify for the permit, credential or option to park in the lot. The prospective user may also be required to enable location services in connection with the parking user application to trigger geofence events when entering or exiting the parking lotwith their vehicle or indicating an anticipated dwell time within the parking lot. A dwell time may correspond, for example, to an amount of time for which the user has purchased parking. Note that speed may be used as an additional data signal for the determination of vehicle entry or exit. For example, if a user enters a parking lot at a low speed (e.g., slower than a typical car in a parking lot) and leaves the parking lot after a short period of time at the same or similar speed, the user is likely not leaving in their vehicle, but returned to the vehicle for some reason (such as to exchange books, etc.).

102 102 102 102 100 The parking user application, in communication with a mapping component or service, uses location data such as global positioning system (GPS) information associated with the user or the user's vehicle to determine if a geofence event is triggered. Location data may be provided by one or more mapping components, application programming interfaces (APIs) or services such as Google Maps, geofencing and/or location platforms from Radar Labs, Inc., Maps by Apple, Inc. or another mapping or location services platform. Mapping services may also be used to implement the geofence associated with the parking lot as described above, and/or for navigation purposes to provide directions to the parking lot, for example. As the geolocation coordinates associated with the user's vehicle through the parking user application intersect the geolocation coordinates corresponding to the geofence, a geofence event is triggered if the vehicle is determined to be entering or exiting the geofence. For some examples, a vehicle's location is only tracked through the parking user application upon entering and within the geofence. Once the vehicle exits the geofence, its location is no longer tracked through the parking user application in some examples. Within the geofence, a vehicle's dwell time may be determined, which may, for some examples, also trigger a geofence event that may cause data associated with the parking lotto be updated.

Where the availability of particular parking space types is tracked, the parking user application may also provide an option for a user to report the type of parking space in which they park. For some examples, particularly where various types of parking spaces are grouped together, the parking user application may determine the type of parking space a user has occupied using a mapping component or service to determine their location within the parking lot and infer a space type.

2 FIG. 1 FIG. 200 200 202 200 100 illustrates an example user interface screenfor the parking user application that provides the user with current parking space availability information. The example user interface screenshows an indication of parking space availabilityfor a parking Lot C in the form of a percentage of parking spaces occupied and the phrase “Near Empty.” In some examples, one or more of the percentage of spaces occupied and the “Near Empty” indicators are color coded for an easy visual reference to indicate a relative level of parking space availability. The user interface screenalso provides the option for directions to Lot C and a general navigation interface as shown. Lot C of this example is associated with a corresponding geofence as described in reference to lotof.

1 FIG. 100 100 100 Referring back to, the parking lotmay be one of multiple parking lots in a particular area. For example, the parking lotmay be one of several parking lots on or near a college campus, school, public transportation station, etc., each of which, like parking lot, is associated with a corresponding geofence.

3 FIG. 300 302 302 illustrates an example user interface screenfor the parking user application showing indications of parking space availabilityfor each of several Lots 16-23 on a campus or other area according to some examples. Each of Lots 16-23 is associated with a corresponding geofence as described above. The indications of parking space availabilityfor each of lots 16 and 18-23 show the percentage of spaces occupied and, in some examples, are also color coded, similar to a heatmap, to indicate their relative occupancy levels. The “N/A” indication associated with Lot 17 may mean, for example, that Lot 17 is closed, is not available for parking with the permit associated with the particular user or is otherwise unavailable. Providing parking availability information for each of multiple lots in a given area may enable a user to quickly determine their preferred option for parking that is both close to their destination and also likely to have an available parking space at the time they arrive.

In addition to indicating parking availability to a user through the parking user application, for example, it may be desirable for a parking lot administrator or other personnel to have insight into and management capabilities related to use of the parking lot. Similar capabilities may be helpful for other geofenced resource areas.

4 FIG. 400 400 402 404 406 408 410 412 For some examples, various administrative tools are provided either through an administrator interface to the parking user application or through a separate administrator mobile or web-based application.illustrates an administrator interface screenof some examples. The screenmay include various information and data associated with the subject parking lot, Lot A7, including the current occupancy level, an average dwell time(i.e., the average time a vehicle is parked in the lot), a total number of individual visits to the lot in a given timeframe, the type of lot, the time when the lot is the busiest, and whether or not the lot is available for parking. Other metrics such as types of available spots, cost to park, etc. may also be provided. These metrics provide insights to parking lot administrators to help identify and manage efficient parking lot usage including, for example, analyzing parking demand, monitoring traffic, determining whether additional parking is needed, identifying unused or low-use areas, and providing traffic control for busy periods.

400 414 414 414 The administrator interface screenalso includes a linkto manage availability of the lot. It may be desirable, for example, to close a lot during certain hours for construction or other maintenance, for a special event, to direct prospective parkers to other lots or for another reason. If an administrator would like to close Lot A7 so it is no longer indicated as being available to some or all users of the parking user application, the availability status of Lot A7 can be changed or updated using the link. Once Lot A7 has been closed, the text associated with the linkmay change to “Open Lot” (or other legend) and the link can be used to change the availability status from “Closed” to “Open” or another status. Status indicators other than “Open” or “Closed”, such as “Special Event” or other special indicator may be used for various examples.

5 FIG. 5 FIG. 1 FIG. 500 100 500 502 502 illustrates another example administrator interface screenshowing an availability and/or occupancy status for each of several parking lots in close proximity to each other, such as on a campus or other institution according to some examples. Each of the parking lots represented on the screen ofis associated with a corresponding geofence similar to the parking lotof. In the illustrated screen, an availability/occupancy status of each lot is indicated in this example by a shape (which is color coded in some examples) superimposed on the representation of the lot according to the legend. As shown in the legend, each indication of availability (e.g., “Empty”, “Near Empty”, etc.) is associated with upper and lower thresholds of an occupancy percentage indication in this example. In other words, as the number of spaces occupied metric or number of spaces available metric changes, the indication of availability may change if the metric causes the occupancy percentage indication to cross a threshold associated with a different textual indication of availability for these examples.

500 0 504 506 4 FIG. Continuing with these examples, if an administrator would like to see further details for a specific lot or would like to change a status of one or more lots, they can click on or otherwise select the representation of the lot on the screen. Clicking on the representation of a particular lot brings up a screen associated with that lot that is similar to the screen ‘Dof. Alternatively, a window including a link, such as the windowsandmay pop up to enable the administrator to efficiently change a status of a particular lot. Other approaches to providing similar capabilities are within the scope of other examples.

6 FIG. 600 illustrates a dialog windowof some examples that may be displayed to confirm that the administrator would like to proceed with a requested lot closure. The additional step of confirming the closure can help to reduce the likelihood that a lot is closed in error.

One or more of the screens described herein may comprise or include an interactive map interface that enables the user or administrator to interact with the location-based features represented on the screen or interface.

Other administrator tools, such as a capability to enter comments related to one or more parking areas, report generation capabilities, an enforcement interface, or other features may also or alternatively be provided for some examples.

While example screens are shown and described herein, other screen views may be used for other examples such as where a user or administrator has indicated a preference for certain views, capabilities, notifications, or ways to interact with a map, for example,

7 FIG. 7 FIG. 702 702 702 702 702 illustrates examples of a system for geofenced resource availability indication and management to provide some or all of the features described herein. The system ofcomprises a parking user applicationthat may be downloaded to a user's device (e.g., a phone, vehicle, or other mobile device such as a smartwatch) and may also be accessible via a web interface. In some examples, the parking user applicationruns as a background process, at times, to allow the parking user applicationto perform one or more actions without user input. In some examples, the parking user applicationruns as a foreground process, at times, to allow the parking user applicationto perform one or more actions according to user input.

702 704 706 705 708 708 The parking user applicationincludes one or more of an interactive map interface(e.g., a map showing directions to one or more lots, a map showing a particular lot, a map with one or more lots overlaid, etc.), a parking lot data interface(e.g., to display real-time or near real-time parking lot data such as the number of available parking spots, parking lot hours, parking lot availability, etc.), a voice interface(e.g., to receive voice prompts), and/or a payment interfaceto enable a user to pay for a permit or use of a parking lot, for example, including for special events. The payment interfaceof some examples provides a connection to a payment service, which may be provided by a third party. Example payment services include Stripe by Stripe, Inc., Square by Block, Inc., and others from their respective providers. Note that the various interfaces may not all be displayed at the same time. Other interfaces and elements, such as an interface or component to indicate preferences, an interface or component to report events or observations and/or an interface to receive notifications, for example, may also be included for various examples.

702 Examples of notifications that may be received include one or more of occupancy of lots frequented by a user, any notifications related to preferences set by a user, notifications indicating certain changes in lot occupancy, etc. For some examples, if the user's vehicle is an electric or hybrid vehicle that is parked at a charging station in a geofenced lot, the parking user applicationmay notify the user when their vehicle is charged or almost charged. This notification may be based on an indication from a charging station in the parking space or a dwell time of the vehicle that corresponds to an estimated charging time, for example.

702 710 710 710 712 714 716 718 720 712 712 The parking user applicationcommunicates with one or more parking user application server(s). The parking user application server(s)may be associated with a cloud provider, such as Google, Amazon, Microsoft, etc. or other network or may be standalone servers. The parking user application server(s)include a mapping componentcomprising one or more of geographic location data storage, routing algorithms(for initial routing and/or re-routing (e.g., based on updated availability)), searching algorithmsand map storage. The various elements of the mapping componentmay be used to define and establish a geofence, identify geofence events, find geofenced resource areas, and navigate to destinations, for example. In some examples, the mapping componentis software stored in the user's device.

716 718 702 702 712 In addition to routing and searching, the algorithmsand, or another set of algorithms (not shown), determine whether to trigger a geofence event if a user of the parking user applicationenters or exits a particular geofence. For example, once a user has parked, they typically walk, take a wheelchair, bike, skate, or otherwise travel from their vehicle in the parking lot to their intended destination. If the user has their parking user applicationopen or running during this time, it is desirable to avoid triggering a geofence event based on this action. The algorithms of the mapping componentmay use data, such as a rate of change in a location of the user or acceleration data or any other indication of speed, for example, and apply confidence levels to distinguish between events that indicate a change in parking space availability and those that do not. In this manner, triggering a geofence event erroneously in this situation can more reliably be avoided to reduce the likelihood of a negative impact on the accuracy of the resource availability data.

7 FIG. 710 722 722 724 726 728 710 722 724 726 728 With continuing reference to, the parking user application server(s)also include one or more data stores. The data store(s)store one or more of user data, lot dataand lot owner data. For examples where the parking user application server(s)are provided by a cloud provider (e.g., Google), the data store(s)may also be provided or hosted by the cloud provider (e.g., Google's Firebase cloud-hosted database for examples where the cloud provider is Google). For some examples, some or all of the user data, lot dataand/or lot owner datamay be encrypted at rest or otherwise stored in a way that is intended to prevent unauthorized access.

724 702 702 724 724 702 724 724 724 824 9 FIG. User datamay include data to connect a parking user applicationaccount to a particular user and/or authenticate a user of the parking user application. This user datamay comprise one or more of an email address, a physical address, a telephone number, an account username or user ID, password, a parking permit type and status, personal information associated with a user such as a preferred parking lot or a parking schedule, for example, and other data associated with the user that is used to provide parking availability and/or management services. For some examples, only an email address and possibly associated user credentials are stored, while for other examples, other types of information, such as location-based events may be stored. One or more elements of the user datamay be stored as a random string or otherwise encrypted to protect the data from unauthorized access, for example. For some examples, the user data may include any settings or preferences set by the user through the parking user application. Preferences may include indications of one or more of preferred parking lots, types of spaces, times of day to park, user interface preferences such as how lot information may be viewed or represented, for example, map interaction preferences, location sharing or other permissions, notification preferences, font size, navigation features, etc. User datamay also include a user permit type, one or more vehicles associated with the permit, vehicle type information, user application or user, payment information, transaction history, parking lot usage history, a user profile, accessibility information, etc. Other user-specific data related to the use, functionality and/or features of the parking user application may also be stored in user data.illustrates examples of user data(or).

726 726 726 702 726 Lot dataincludes data for each lot that is managed or for which availability is indicated through the parking user application or an administrator application or interface. The lot dataincludes one or more of geofence or other relevant location data, geofence event information, institution name, metrics indicating parking space availability or lot occupancy, indicators of users occupying spaces in the lot, indicators of relative parking space availability or occupancy, lot capacity, types of spaces in the lot, geofence coordinates for a geofence associated with the lot, lot status, lot location, lot usage data, peak and off-peak occupancy times, any permits required for the lot, rules and regulations, user agreements, and/or any other contextual or other data associated with the lots that may be used to manage the lots or indicate lot characteristics, usage of the lot(s) or availability of parking. The lot datamay be used by one or more of the parking user application, or an administrator application or interface to provide relevant information or capabilities. The lot datamay also store historical data for the one or more metrics. Timestamps may be associated with data as it is stored so that the historical data can be used for reporting and analysis purposes, for example.

726 For some examples, lot datamay include pricing for parking in the lot, which may either be fixed or dynamic. Dynamic pricing may vary by one or more of the day of the week, time of day and/or demand or forecasted demand, for example, and may be managed either automatically or by an administrator.

728 728 728 Lot owner datamay include data relevant to or used by an administrator to manage or oversee the lots that are covered by the parking user application or an administrator application or interface. For some examples, lot owner datamay include many elements of data that are similar to the user data described above including data relevant to an administrator account, including login information, preferences and/or settings. The lot owner dataof some examples may include reports on the lots and/or reporting options, which may be custom to the administrator, comments, preferences for one or more specific or customized analytics or other dashboard to view lot operational or other information, including, for example, traffic, notifications of any upcoming events, trends, revenue, etc.

710 730 730 For some examples the parking user application server(s)includes administrative toolsto enable an administrator of a parking area to manage and oversee operation of the parking area. The administrative toolsprovide one or more administrative capabilities such as enabling an administrator to view and/or change a status of a parking lot, manage parking permits, view and/or manage data related to parking lot(s), prepare reports, use forecasting tools, provide enforcement capabilities (e.g., in connection with a decal application), respond to user reports regarding one or more parking lots, detect anomalies (e.g., in user status, lot status, etc.), etc. Reporting capabilities may include options to generate reports per lot by timeframe (e.g., hour by hour, for a particular month, etc.) indicating usage and other characteristics of the lot.

730 702 The administrative toolsmay be accessible via an administrator interface to the parking user application, through a separate parking administrator application or via a web interface, for example.

732 702 710 Orchestrator(s)assist with data transformations, server management, authentications, and automation of workflows to coordinate and manage communications between applications including the parking user applicationand various components and services of the parking user application server(s), for example.

710 730 715 For some examples, parking user application server(s)may include additional data analysis and forecasting tools, which may be part of the administrative toolsor provided as separate administrator-accessible and/or user-accessible tools. The additional data analysis and forecasting tools, which may include machine learning or other artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities (such as predictive models) and/or a search engine, provide one or more of future parking usage insights, historical usage trends, routing for autonomous vehicles from one point to another and/or other data analysis and forecasting.

702 For instance, for some examples, if a user is directed to a first parking lot close to, for example, a first class of the day, but their last class of the day is across campus, the user may be a significant distance from where they parked. The additional data analysis and forecasting tools may enable the parking user applicationto route the vehicle to a parking lot or other location closer to the user.

710 740 740 740 704 740 In some examples, the parking user application server(s)include a charging station component. The charging station componentinteracts with one or more charging station providers and/or services to allow a user to charge an electric vehicle. The charging station componentmay also be used to update the interactive map interfacewith charging station availability, pricing, etc. In some examples, the charging station componentis an application on the user's device.

705 705 717 715 715 712 730 715 717 702 In some examples, the voice interfaceallows a user to prompt for data, a task, etc. For example, the voice interfacemay allow a user to provide a voice prompt to a speech-to-text component(e.g., an automated speech recognition (ASR) model, punctuation model, etc.) to convert the voice prompt to text. Text may be input into one or more predictive models(e.g., generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) models) as a prompt. The output of the predictive model(s)may be used to interact with other components such as the mapping component, administrative tools, etc. In some examples, one or more of the predictive model(s)and/or speech-to-text componentare on the user device and may be a part of the parking user application.

8 FIG. 8 FIG. 8 FIG. 7 FIG. 8 FIG. 8 FIG. 8 FIG. 7 FIG. 812 712 712 832 812 812 840 illustrates a system of another example using a third-party mapping service(hosted by one or more servers) instead of the mapping componentofto provide similar capabilities as the mapping component. Other elements ofprovide similar capabilities to similarly named elements ofas described above. The orchestrator(s)ofadditionally orchestrate communications between the mapping serviceand other elements illustrated in. Note that the numbers ofmirror those of(with the exception of there being a separate mapping service). In some examples, a charging station serviceis also provided by and hosted by a third party. As such, the illustrated components have the same or similar functionality.

10 FIG. 7 FIG. 8 FIG. illustrates examples of a flow for indicating availability and managing a geofenced resource area where the geofenced resource area is a parking lot as discussed above. While the flow refers to elements of, similar elements ofmay operate in a similar manner.

712 702 712 702 As shown, a request for a map of, or a map to, a geofenced parking area or campus including geofenced parking areas is received by the mapping componentfrom via the parking user application. In response, the mapping componentprovides the requested map, which may be displayed to a user via a user interface. In some examples, the map is to be automatically displayed upon opening the parking user application. In some examples, the request for the map is a verbal prompt from a user that is converted to text to make the request.

710 702 702 710 702 A request for parking lot information (e.g., availability or other information) is received by the parking user application server(s)from the parking user application, which may be in response to a request via a user interface of the parking user application. In response to the request, the parking user application server(s)provide(s) the requested information to the parking user application, which may be displayed via a user interface to the user. Note that lot information may include one or more of information about a plurality of lots (e.g., availability, pricing, etc.), information about a particular type of parking spot (e.g., electric charging capable, disabled, etc.), etc.

702 712 702 702 Optionally, a request for directions to a parking lot identified as part of the lot information is received from or via the parking user application. The request for directions is sent to the mapping component, which provides the requested directions back to the parking user application. The parking user applicationmay then display or otherwise convey the directions to a user.

702 712 712 702 702 712 702 712 When a device running the parking user applicationarrives at, or departs from, a geofenced parking area location, possibly guided by directions provided by the mapping component, its location information is provided to the mapping component. Geofence information may be provided back to the parking user applicationindicating whether a geofence event has been triggered. Location information may also be provided from the parking user applicationto the mapping componentas the user or device changes location within the geofenced parking area or leaves the parking area. For some examples, the parking user applicationand associated mapping componentdo not track a device's or user's location outside of a parking lot geofence for the purposes of determining parking availability although the device or user's location may be used for navigation.

710 710 If a geofence event is triggered, either based on a user or device entering or exiting a parking lot with the associated vehicle and/or on a dwell time in the parking lot (either reported by the user or determined automatically), associated geofence event data and an indicator of a change in occupancy data is sent to the parking user application server(s)and data or information associated with the respective lot is updated. In some examples, the geofence information is provided to the parking user application server(s).

702 For some examples, if a user's device dies or is otherwise offline as the user enters or exits a geofenced parking lot an anomaly may be flagged. This may happen, for example, if the user is not on an occupancy list indicating which users are parked in the lot. If the device comes back online, the parking user applicationmay update the lot information or otherwise address the anomaly.

In some examples, if a user remains on an occupancy list for an extended period of time (e.g., past a configurable threshold) an anomaly may be flagged.

710 702 702 For some examples, if lot information changes while a user (or the associated device) is enroute to a lot, the parking user application server(s)may provide updated information to the parking user application, which may be displayed to a user via a push or other type of notification. In this example, if the lot is either full or almost full, the parking user applicationmay display information related to other nearby lots, re-route the user to another lot or otherwise provide additional information or options.

702 710 While examples discussed above refer to indicating availability of and managing one or more parking lots (also referred to as parking areas), it will be appreciated that similar elements may be used to indicate availability of and manage a different geofenced resource area. For example, for indicating the availability of and managing a shared workspace, the parking user applicationand parking user application serversare replaced with a shared workspace application and shared workspace application servers, etc.

702 710 710 In some examples, the parking user applicationsends other information to the parking user application server(s). For example, user information to be updated, an indication of a crash (such that the parking user application server(s)can alert emergency personnel and/or vehicle services, etc.

702 710 In some examples, the parking user applicationsends payment information to the parking user application server(s)to pay a lot owner and/or charging station owner.

710 702 702 In some examples, the parking user application server(s)send a query to a parking user application. For example, a query may be sent after a period of time has expired inquiring if the user is still parked in a lot. For example, a query may be sent after a period of time has expired inquiring if the user is okay (e.g., if a crash has been detected by the parking user applicationbased on sensor data such as an accelerometer of the user device).

702 710 730 In some examples, a user may use the parking user applicationto send a distress signal to the parking user application server(s)which may cause administrative toolsto call for help (e.g., police, fire, medical, etc.).

11 FIG. is a flow diagram illustrating operations of a method for indicating availability of and managing a geofenced resource area according to some examples. Some or all of the operations (or other processes described herein, or variations, and/or combinations thereof) are performed under the control of one or more computing devices configured with executable instructions, and are implemented as code (e.g., executable instructions, one or more computer programs, or one or more applications) executing collectively on one or more processors. The code is stored on a computer-readable storage medium, for example, in the form of a computer program comprising instructions executable by one or more processors. The computer-readable storage medium is non-transitory. In some examples, one or more (or all) of the operations are performed by the user application of the other figures.

1102 The operations include, at block, storing a metric associated with a resource availability for a geofenced resource area. If the geofenced resource area is a parking lot, for example, the metric may be a number of available parking spaces, a number of occupied parking spaces or another metric.

1104 At block, an indication of a geofence event is received for some examples. The indication of the geofence may include an indication of a type of geofence event. For some examples, the geofence event is generated from an application running on a device. The device, for example, may be a mobile device with location services.

1106 The operations further include, at block, updating the stored metric in response to the geofence event. For examples for which the geofenced resource area is a parking area or lot, a geofence event may include a vehicle entering or exiting a geofence associated with the parking lot, an indication received from a user of their expected dwell time in the parking lot, or another location-based event that may result in a change in the available parking in the parking lot. Where the metric is a number of available parking spaces for some examples, the metric may be updated to increment the number of available parking spaces when a vehicle leaves the parking lot or decrement the number of available parking spaces when a vehicle enters the parking lot.

1108 At block, an indication of resource availability may be determined based at least in part on the stored metric. For example, if the stored metric indicates a number of available (or alternatively, occupied) parking spaces, and the indication of resource availability is a percentage of occupancy, the stored metric may be used along with the overall number of spaces to determine a percentage of occupancy. For other examples, a percentage of occupancy may then be used to determine a qualitative indicator such as a color coding or phrase that indicates relative occupancy based on predetermined thresholds associated with the qualitative indicators. The indication of resource availability may include, for some examples, an indication of a type of available resource(s). For examples related to a parking area, the type may be one or more of a type of permit associated with a parking spot, a type of vehicle associated with the parking spot, a parking spot with a charging station, a handicapped spot, a pay station or a parking area within a group of parking areas, etc.

1110 At block, the indication of resource availability (or an associated metric for some examples), may be updated in response to a change in status of the geofenced resource area. For examples for which the geofenced resource area is a parking lot, a change in status may be a change from an “open” status to a “closed” or “special event” status, for example.

1114 The operations further include, at block, providing an indication of resource availability for the geofenced resource area in response to receiving a request for resource availability information associated with the geofenced resource area, where the indication of resource availability is based at least in part on the stored metric. Where the geofenced resource area is a parking lot, the indication of resource availability for the parking area may be one or more of a percentage of spaces occupied (or free), a descriptive term indicating a relative availability of parking (e.g., “Empty”, “Nearly empty”, “Almost Full”, “Full”, etc.), a color or other indicator or relative availability of parking spaces (or occupancy), etc. The indication of resource availability may also include an indication of a type of available resource where the type may be one or more of a type of space, permit required, etc. The request may indicate one or more of a location of a device, a general area in which a resource is sought, a permit type, an event, a resource type, a desired dwell time, a preferred resource area, etc.

1116 For some examples, a forecast of resource availability for the geofenced resource area may be provided in response to receiving a request for future availability for the geofenced resource area at block. The forecast may be based at least in part on one or more of data indicating historical usage of the geofenced resource area, expected or reported dwell times, special events, user-reported data, etc.

1118 A push notification may be provided to a device or user for some examples at block, at least in response to a change in resource availability when the device or user is in transit to the geofenced resource area. The push notification may be an update to an interactive map interface, a pop-up text notification or other type of notification. Push notifications may also be provided in response to other events or information or otherwise.

Other operations may be included in the operations in various examples.

12 FIG. 1200 700 800 710 810 1200 1202 1204 1214 1208 1204 1214 1202 illustrates a logical arrangement of a set of general components of an example computing devicesuch as user device, user device, server(s), server(s), etc. Generally, a computing devicecan also be referred to as an electronic device. The techniques shown in the figures and described herein can be implemented using code and data stored and executed on one or more electronic devices (e.g., a client end station and/or server end station). Such electronic devices store and communicate (internally and/or with other electronic devices over a network) code and data using computer-readable media, such as non-transitory computer-readable storage media (e.g., magnetic disks, optical disks, Random Access Memory (RAM), Read Only Memory (ROM), flash memory devices, phase-change memory) and transitory computer-readable communication media (e.g., electrical, optical, acoustical or other form of propagated signals, such as carrier waves, infrared signals, digital signals). In addition, such electronic devices include hardware, such as a set of one or more processors(e.g., wherein a processor is a microprocessor, controller, microcontroller, central processing unit, digital signal processor, application specific integrated circuit, field programmable gate array, other electronic circuitry, a combination of one or more of the preceding) coupled to one or more other components, e.g., one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media (e.g., memory) to store code (e.g., instructions) and/or data, and a set of one or more wired or wireless network interfacesallowing the electronic device to transmit data to and receive data from other computing devices, typically across one or more networks (e.g., Local Area Networks (LANs), the Internet). The coupling of the set of processors and other components is typically through one or more interconnects within the electronic device, (e.g., busses and possibly bridges). Thus, the non-transitory machine-readable storage media (e.g., memory) of a given electronic device typically stores code (e.g., instructions) for execution on the set of one or more processorsof that electronic device. One or more parts of various embodiments may be implemented using different combinations of software, firmware, and/or hardware.

1200 1206 1206 1212 A computing devicecan include some type of display element, such as a touch screen or liquid crystal display (LCD), although many devices such as portable media players might convey information via other means, such as through audio speakers, and other types of devices such as server end stations may not have a display elementat all. As discussed, some computing devices used in some embodiments include at least one input and/or output component(s)able to receive input from a user. This input component can include, for example, a push button, touch pad, touch screen, wheel, joystick, keyboard, mouse, keypad, or any other such device or element whereby a user is able to input a command to the device. In some embodiments, however, such a device might be controlled through a combination of visual and/or audio commands and use a microphone, camera, sensor, etc., such that a user can control the device without having to be in physical contact with the device.

In the preceding description, various examples are described. For purposes of explanation, specific configurations and details are set forth to provide a thorough understanding of the examples. However, it will also be apparent to one skilled in the art that the examples can be practiced without the specific details. Furthermore, well-known features can be omitted or simplified in order not to obscure the example being described.

Bracketed text and blocks with dashed borders (e.g., large dashes, small dashes, dot-dash, and dots) are used herein to illustrate optional aspects that add additional features to some examples. However, such notation should not be taken to mean that these are the only options or optional operations, and/or that blocks with solid borders are not optional in certain examples.

Reference numerals with suffix letters can be used to indicate that there can be one or multiple instances of the referenced entity in various examples, and when there are multiple instances, each does not need to be identical but may instead share some general traits or act in common ways. Further, the particular suffixes used are not meant to imply that a particular amount of the entity exists unless specifically indicated to the contrary. Thus, two entities using the same or different suffix letters might or might not have the same number of instances in various examples.

References to “one example,” “an example,” etc., indicate that the example described may include a particular feature, structure, or characteristic, but every example may not necessarily include the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover, such phrases are not necessarily referring to the same example. Further, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic is described in connection with an example, it is submitted that it is within the knowledge of one skilled in the art to affect such feature, structure, or characteristic in connection with other examples whether or not explicitly described.

Moreover, in the various examples described above, unless specifically noted otherwise, disjunctive language such as the phrase “at least one of A, B, or C” is intended to be understood to mean either A, B, or C, or any combination thereof (e.g., A, B, and/or C). Similarly, language such as “at least one or more of A, B, and C” (or “one or more of A, B, and C”) is intended to be understood to mean A, B, or C, or any combination thereof (e.g., A, B, and/or C). As such, disjunctive language is not intended to, nor should it be understood to, imply that a given example requires at least one of A, at least one of B, and at least one of C to each be present.

As used herein, the term “based on” (or similar) is an open-ended term used to describe one or more factors that affect a determination or other action. It is to be understood that this term does not foreclose additional factors that may affect a determination or action. For example, a determination may be solely based on the factor(s) listed or based on the factor(s) and one or more additional factors. Thus, if an action A is “based on” B, it is to be understood that B is one factor that affects action A, but this does not foreclose the action from also being based on one or multiple other factors, such as factor C. However, in some instances, action A may be based entirely on B.

Unless otherwise explicitly stated, articles such as “a” or “an” should generally be interpreted to include one or multiple described items. Accordingly, phrases such as “a device configured to” or “a computing device” are intended to include one or multiple recited devices. Such one or more recited devices can be collectively configured to carry out the stated operations. For example, “a processor configured to carry out operations A, B, and C” can include a first processor configured to carry out operation A working in conjunction with a second processor configured to carry out operations B and C, where the second processor could be part of same computing device as the first processor or part of a separate computing device as the first processor.

Further, the words “may” or “can” are used in a permissive sense (i.e., meaning having the potential to), rather than the mandatory sense (i.e., meaning must). The words “include,” “including,” and “includes” are used to indicate open-ended relationships and therefore mean including, but not limited to. Similarly, the words “have,” “having,” and “has” also indicate open-ended relationships, and thus mean having, but not limited to. The terms “first,” “second,” “third,” and so forth as used herein are used as labels for the nouns that they precede, and do not imply any type of ordering (e.g., spatial, temporal, logical, etc.) unless such an ordering is otherwise explicitly indicated. Similarly, the values of such numeric labels are generally not used to indicate a required amount of a particular noun in the claims recited herein, and thus a “fifth” element generally does not imply the existence of four other elements unless those elements are explicitly included in the claim or it is otherwise made abundantly clear that they exist.

The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense. It will, however, be evident that various modifications and changes can be made thereunto without departing from the broader scope of the disclosure as set forth in the claims.